Are you looking for stewardship resources to fuel your ministries and your imagination? Here are three places to find guidance and support:

• J. Clif Christopher’s Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry (Abingdon Press, 2012). An excellent and concise primer for church leadership, this book compares communities that live into the sufficiency of God with those that become paralyzed in a mindset of scarcity. Though a few years old now, this material holds up — even after the recent pandemic. Church councils, stewardship teams and rostered leaders will all gain insight from this resource.

• Lake Institute on Faith & Giving. The Lake Institute has a new and improved website with a generous assortment of articles, think pieces and facts regarding stewardship for nonprofit leaders. Though some of the resources require subscription, plenty are free — and people participating in “Cultivating Generous Congregations” get full use of the resources for a year.

• “My Church Is a Beautiful Waste of Money.” In this brief but bold article from Duke University, the Rev. Melissa Florer-Bixler makes the case that churches work in ways that defy the economies of the world because churches operate in a context of beauty, not efficiency. Though at first blush this argument might seem wasteful, you can’t help but recall the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet in John’s Gospel. Her perspective challenges us to examine our preconceptions around stewardship and what God calls us to be in the world. This resource would be a wonderful opener for a council meeting, congregational retreat or stewardship workshop.

Have a great stewardship resource to share? Please send articles, books, movies and other media to tim.brown@elca.org. The best gifts are those that are shared!